Poems......

:-P (sorry its so small, the lines didn't work out if I made it any bigger...)

When the odds stack against us and sins drowned our hope, what can we trust in, who won’t disappoint
When temptations are just one click away and our schedule gives us no time to pray
When fear and depression are what’s setting the tone, and the Christians you know are just worldly clones
When you fail and then try and then fail some more to get rid of the sin that lives in your core
When you think that Gods left and He’s not coming back, that you failed once too often and God won’t cut you slack
When life just seems worthless and you’ve kissed meaning goodbye, just turn once to Jesus He’s heard all your cries

It’s a death to ourselves and this world where we dwell, which in the end is just weight that will drag us to Hell
But with death comes His life that never will end, it’s a life lived in faith that He will constantly mend
He’ll hold you and guide you and lead you to glory, the road may be narrow but He’s writing the story
You where chosen before time so rejoice in His Love, your names in His book and your home is above
So live life as a stranger who boasts in the Cross, who fears not a man and counts everything as loss
Your life may be void of all earthly “pleasure” but turn your eyes unto Jesus He‘s the real treasure

And when you arrive at the gates full of splendor and all that you offer is a life of surrender
Jesus will stand and proclaim unto all, this is my child I didn’t let him fall
Through fear and through trial and unto his death he trusted my name with every breath
And then he will welcome you into your Home and love you forever as one of his own!

Choosing

I was thinking today about being a Christian and wondering about the question that is often raised about choosing. And after some thought, I really can’t give any clear explanation. My thinking goes like this: Did I decide the family I would be placed in, or the time I would be born? Who wired my mind the way it is, and shaped my body so that I would be good at some things and not others? When I see how little I had to do with any of this, namely nothing, I can’t conclude in the least that I had anything to do with choosing God. And when my mind hits that wall it comes to this conclusion: Oh how beautiful it is to be chosen by God! To be loved first, knowing that I owe nothing to myself, not only does this eliminate pride, it eliminates fear, fear that I will do something that will cause God to push me away. We are all sinners nothing in us caused God to choose us! What a beautiful promise it is when we are told that He will complete the work He started in us! The security of my soul is set in place by God himself; a security that no man can touch, no sin can mare and no fear can cripple! God is the same yesterday today and forever and His choice has been made! I rest in that fact yet double my effort to make my calling and election sure. Not because God will erase my name from the book of life if I sin, but because, though I confess with my lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead, I will do everything I can to not let mediocrity pull me down to a place where I look back and find that Christianity was just a phase for me and I am just another seed that was choked out by the thorns of this world. Thank You God for this promise of perseverance, for your forgiveness and for your continued working in my life!

Some thoughts on Gods sovereignty

Why in my mind, Gods sovereignty must reign in everything, from the smallest detail to the call on my heart that saves me.

When I first became a Christian I didn’t know much about any of the details that many congregations and people are split over. Some may say that it’s not relevant to saving people and I would agree with this idea to a point. Gods Sovereignty is not a battle that will decide the outcome of the war being fought between congregations, nor is the debate over speaking in tongues and the gift of the Holy Spirit a battle that will spread Gods word across the world. But as I looked more into the word of God and started really looking at chapters like Romans 9 and Acts 1 and 2 they begged these same questions again and again. I hold no great regard for my logic, what I see as making sense to me I have a hard time defending or explaining to others at times. But as I have read through the Bible, looked at the way this world works, talked with my dad, and friends, and read through authors such as C.S. Lewis and John Piper I had to try and lay out how I see all these ideas in my head. Not only to make it clear to myself, but also to see what doesn’t fit and what needs to continually be evaluated as I seek to follow the Lord. I wanted to tackle this explanation on two fronts: the sovereignty of God in everything, including the elect; and the Holy Spirit, or more specifically the question of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And after these discussions I wanted to tie the two together with writing on the ultimate Glory of God. This writing is thoughts on the first of these two, the Sovereignty of God. In my mind as I read through what I have written it begs the asking of more questions than it answers but any thoughts on what I have written would be appreciated.

So lets get it on: I have talked with people who hold to the belief that God does not micromanage our ever detail in life, that with his omnipotent power he only needs to step in when that power is needed. (See description of God reacting to situations, which shows his omniscience, but not his omnipotence) While this view is of course possible I see it as flying in the face of some basic verses in the Bible, the first of which is Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And the next verse which states And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. To me this is micromanaging to the nth degree. If someone in out society today where to not only count the hairs on their pet cat, but also to number each of them we would call them O.C.D., yet here God expresses both his omnipotent power in the smallest detail of the world, the will for a sparrow to live or die, as well as his omniscient knowledge in our lives, the numbered hairs on our head. He finishes this section of scripture by reminding us that we are worth more than many sparrows which in my mind is him telling us that he is even more involved in our lives then these sparrows that he wills to live or die! *This is shown also in both Acts 17:26 where God determines the exact places and times people would live, and if that’s not enough Proverbs 16:33 tells us that He controls every decision of the casting of lots, or in terms for us today, the roll of the dice.*

From here my mind wanders to the big question about Gods sovereignty, Election. Romans 9 contains the main verses that come to my mind when this is brought up.
10 Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Interesting thought here, Hatred and love….that is what God has, there is no in between, God doesn’t sort of like people.)

Too many times I have heard people make the argument that God is unjust and that a loving God would not send people to hell. Which brings to mind the verse in 2 Peter: 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. So why then if He doesn’t want anyone to perish does he send people to hell? My only answer to this question is: for His Glory, *He does ALL things for His glory. John Piper and Dr. Fuller are very helpful on this point. They argue that if God did not act for His greatest glory then He would be demeaning Himself and therefore Not worthy of all our praise.* God deserves all the glory and in so much as he deserves that glory, each part of his power deserves an equal amount of that glory. This idea I borrow from Jonathan Edwards. He wrote this idea out as follows:

Thus it is necessary, that God’s awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God’s glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all. (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974)

But you may ask how can God will something like this and not cause it to come about, or to word it differently, isn’t Gods willing absolute, can’t he bring this about through his omnipotent power? The answer is yes of course he could but he wouldn’t get the glory he deserves from this course of action. God set the universe up with just the right amount of people going to heaven and just the right amount of people going to hell so that he receives the absolute glory for all of it. The saved in Heaven will praise Him all the more because they where rescued from His wrath, which is showed against the deservingly punished in hell. This may seem harsh to us, but if we look at the Bible we see that we all are sinners, not one of us deserves to be in heaven. Only by Gods grace are we chosen and saved. But the question then arises; where we not created sinners? How do we have any other choice, its not like when I was born I could decide I would live a life without sin. How can a righteous loving God who wills that none should perish create sinners destined for hell? Is there a distinction then between Gods will and his purpose? We know there can’t be any contradiction here, but if these two don’t line up can these ideas still work? We know from Isaiah that nothing will thwart Gods purpose, so what is His ultimate purpose. I believe that it comes back to his Glory. God’s ultimate purpose is His glory. He wants to, and will, receive all the glory for everything he has done and will do in the lives of his created sons and daughters. Being a loving compassionate God who is slow to anger would mean that His will is that none would perish, but being a righteous judge whose ultimate purpose is for his own glory he knows that it cannot be this way. Now this is dangerous ground because if looked at wrong this could be interpreted as if God is held to some plan that must be followed so that he gets the ultimate glory. As if this path is the only one that can be taken and so if God really wants to get the glory he has to do it this way. This would be an interesting discussion I think, to have someone try and explain. I see it this way God is constrained only by Himself, no one outside of him can cause him to do anything. And since we know He is infinite, in power, creativity and knowledge, we know that he has no limitations. What I am trying to get at here is we can’t put God in this little box that says some outside force holds him to the path He chose. In our world we judge things by what is right or fair or good, and for Christians this has been set up by God through the Bible. But *God judges everything by whether or not it will ultimately bring Him the most possible glory. He is not constrained by our ideas of what is ‘fair’ or good or right or just. Something is good/right/ fair/ just if it brings Him the most glory…how can anything be good if it doesn’t properly recognize the inestimable worth of God?*

Back to the sovereignty of God, to me one of the biggest challenges with not accepting the view that God chooses is the flip side, or the other view held by men. Which is essentially something like this: God “knows” who is going to heaven, and this is who we would call the elect. I still don’t understand how this works. This view leaves something up to me, I, in essence, choose God, sure He first chose me, but I am doing something in this process as well, no matter how small the choice is, it leaves room for boasting. Faith, surely is required, but it appears to me from this description that God is reacting to his knowledge of my belief or un-belief in Him. *And God reacting to us is so contrary to anything we see in the Bible.* That is what I cannot accept, God does not react to anything, he causes and he purposes, when God speaks or when God moves in hearts or when God does anything it is for a purpose. When I go home from work today I will have a purpose, maybe I’m tired so I’ll take a nap with the purpose of getting rest. God does not work like this, when God acts it is in relation to nothing but His will. No outside influence causes God to act in my life. If I get in a car wreck and I am barely hanging onto life, God doesn’t have to quick save me from this accident. His purpose from before I was born would be for His glory through that accident. The accident would in some way not only bring him glory but would also be turned into some kind of good because I am His, He called me to be His own. He tells us time and again that he acts to bring about his purpose. Isaiah dominates this idea:

Isaiah 14:24 A Prophecy Against Assyria ] The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.

Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

Isaiah 46:11 From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

Isaiah 48:14 Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD's chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians.

Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

I realize this does not fully or in some cases even partially, answer the questions that can be asked of God’s sovereignty. But to me this subject is so refreshing to think about. Spurgeon puts it so plainly in this piece from one of his devotionals; I added my thoughts in parenthesis.
Being conscious of our own folly,(which I am all to aware of all the time) we would not desire to rule our own destinies. We feel safer and more at ease when the Lord steers our vessel than we could possibly be if we could direct it according to our own judgment. Joyfully we leave the painful present and the unknown future with our Father, our Savior, our Comforter.

So thats it for now let me know what your thoughts are.......Oh and sections surrounded by * are sections my Dad gave comments on, or gave the words for.

I just wanted to finally write out some thoughts I had during our youth winter camp back in 2008. the theme for the camp was the cost, and our speaker did a pretty good job of describing the cost of following Christ. He gave us some great questions to ask ourselves and pointed out some common idols that try and disguise themselves as decent things in our lives. But as I listened to these two sermons I couldn't help but think that one more sermon to rap the whole series up was needed. I would have called it "The reward! This whole camp was spent looking at and talked about the cost, but never the reward, never about Jesus! We may have hinted at it, but Jesus is the reason we pay that cost. As I sat and thought about this I felt like God has been putting this whole topic on my heart for the last 2 years in relation to paying the cost for missions, and so a number of verses jumped into my mind, Phillipians 3:7-8 where Paul talks about "counting everything as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus", in Genesis 15:1 God tells Abram: "Don't be afraid, I AM your shield, Your very great reward", and then in Psalm 34:10 "...those who seek the Lord lack no good thing". Even from Jesus in Hebrews 12:2 we see that Jesus, "for the joy set before him endured the cross!" Troubles and tribulations and even death may come, but the Bible makes it so clear, the reward is why we pay the cost! Luke 12:32 made this point clear to me. it says: "Do not be afraid little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom, sell your possessions and give to the poor, Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted." When I think about my idols, or all that I will give up to go on the mission field, its not the cost that I am thinking about, its the reward. Its the fact that as I give more of my time and attention to Christ He will make it worth infinitely more than I can imagine.

Money and God

Money, its what the American dream is made of…....a nice house, requires money, a new car, requires money, raising kids, requires money….the list could go on for quite a while. For the average American, money is the string that ties their lives together. It wouldn’t be a jump to say that the average American is controlled by their money. But we as Christians are called to a different master, as Luke 16:13 says, we can’t serve both God and money. This verse is pitting Your love for God against one of the strongest influences in the modern world, money. Now money isn’t the real problem the real problem is image, envy and lust. We want something, or want to look a certain way to others, to have a certain image, and money is often times the easiest way to achieve this, so we crave more of it. So let me first explain how this blog post came about. I make a decent amount of money, I have been blessed with the chance in this life that many people will never have. But growing up gave me a point of view that I don’t think many people have either. My parents taught me to tithe since before I can remember, and my dad has taught me the value of a smart purchase, and about buying things we don’t need. So when I hear a friend talk about how amazing it is to make good money, or how nice it is to be “secure” in your income, I am disappointed. First off this friend is not a Christian, so making lots of money to him is a top priority, almost every time I talk with him he will bring it up and explain how happy he is that he makes allot of money. Now here in lies the HUGE difference that I see as a necessity to the Christian life. By no means should we not be happy, but the reason we are happy lies in a different place than my friend here. When I look at the money I make and the job I have my prayer is this: “Thank You God for what You have blessed me with, for the job You have given me, for the things I am able to buy, may I use this money to serve You, may I not use it for selfish gain but give You the glory with it.” Every time money comes into my mind I try and thank God, because He orchestrated everything that brought me to the place I am at now and He can take it away if he desires. And I don't see myself being "rich" my whole life, I have wondered if God will use me for missions, if a life of complete faith in Him for even the next meal is something I can handle. And knowing how amazing His love is and how he never leaves or forsakes us, I believe with my whole heart that he can bring me through anything! So my purpose with this prayer in money is not to live in fear that it could be taken away, but to make Jesus so much more valuable in my life that if money was taken away I would still have everything I need. Don’t take this lack of enthusiasm as indifference, I am overjoyed that God has blessed me in the way that He has, it is a huge honor that I give Him the credit for. But in this rejoicing state, I am always trying to keep in mind the idea that God didn’t bless me with this so that I could go buy a nice car and motorcycle, wear expensive clothes and travel to exotic locations. I see the money as a trust fund that God has handed me. And I have my lifetime to use it to store up treasures in heaven. The purchases and donations I make directly reflect the treasure that is deposited in heaven. So with that in mind, if I go and buy and new car, or a new pare of jeans every week, what deposit is being made into that account?

A poem....

So here is a poem I wrote during a slow day at work, I use these to remind myself to think about God during my day. It is an easy way to keep thinking about God through a rough time, or when we are waiting for Him to come to our rescue, which happens allot for me it seems. I don't think they are ever that great, but than I write them to God and He knows where my heart is when I write them.


The son of man upon the cross
So all who trust will not be lost

He took my sins and with them died
So that in His life I could confide

All my sins and fears and wants
My earthly self that always haunts

It waits and waits and begs and pleads
To come back in and rule my deeds

This fight is real and hard at times
To see the goal and not my grime

But robes of white and eternal life
Are all that wait beyond some strife

Just Finish the race, and carry the cross
For this is one battle that cannot be lost

The victories ours, with His spoils of war
Just stay on the course and never ignore

The treasure we have in Jesus secure
So please don’t just live your life as a tour

Buying and craving and hording your wealth
Living as though its all for yourself

But wealth is not something that goes beyond death
It fails to give even one single breath

So while you are here and blessed by his hand
Turn it God that sinners may stand

For what is life that in it we boast
And where does it say that through life we can coast

In fact the opposite is true
God tells us our life will carry some blue

But in the end when you believe
God will not, his promises leave

He’ll hold You and love you and welcome you in
And never once will he bring up your sin!